Gucci, the up-upscale leather and fashion company, has long suffered from counterfeiters. In time for its 90th anniversary in a couple of years, it has come up with a creative way to fight fakes. It has teamed with Christie’s, which will do online appraisals of vintage Gucci.

The auction of designer Yves Saint Laurent’s personal items was a wow, going two times above estimates. The millions raised with go to the Saint Laurent’s and partner Pierre Berge’s charity that for HIV and AIDS research.

The Red Cross is running an enormous operating deficit, more than $200 million. To refill its coffers, the disaster-relief charity is cleaning out its warehouses and sending items, some that predate Clara Barton’s starting the Red Cross, to the auction block. “White Cross Nurse,” a painting by illustrator Haddon Hubbard Sundblom will go. Rose Percy, a 23-inch doll complete with Tiffany jewels (first sold in 1864 for $1,200) is being offered along with a rare Cartier clock lamp, World War I nurses uniforms and a document issued by Swede Raoul Wallenberg that gave a Jewish chemist safe passage out of Hungary.

You might want to kick yourself for not keeping that “Star Wars” or “Animal House” posters you chucked when moving. Movie posters become vintage movie posters and can bring big bucks, as evidenced by recent auction results.

Update on the auction of Bernie Madoff’s personal stuff. We do not want to keep you in suspense. The satin Mets baseball jacket with Bernie’s name in large letters on the back: $14,500. His Hofstra College ring: $6,000. All in all, $1 million came in, which will go to victims of his Ponzi scheme. A tiny drop in the bucket, still a moral victory.